


Superman

by JadelynTate



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Darcy should really have been in Civil War, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Male-Female Friendship, Team as Family, so much would have been fixed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-10
Updated: 2016-12-10
Packaged: 2018-09-07 14:35:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,978
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8804665
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JadelynTate/pseuds/JadelynTate
Summary: Someone's broken into the Wakandan royal residence.





	

**_”Put your armor on the ground tonight  
Cause everyone’s got to come down sometimes”_ **

“Thor’s gonna kill me,” Steve mumbled the moment he came down to the gate and found just who had successfully snuck into the compound in Wakanda. 

“Stevie!” Darcy Lewis, looking distinctly unruffled, considering T’Challa’s guards were holding her arms tightly as the king and super soldier watched. “How ya doin?”

“You know this woman?” T’Challa asked and he sounded almost amused. Steve was taking that as a good sign. Still…

“Unfortunately,” he agreed and heard Darcy snicker. 

“He loves me,” she assured the king. She glanced to her side. “And hey, ladies? I really don’t think you need to keep giving me bruises. I’m not gonna run, kay? I may kick Steve, but I’m not gonna run.” 

T’Challa chuckled and gave a nod. Steve watched apprehensively as the two women let Darcy go. She bounced over to him, giving him a hug and didn’t, he was thankful for, actually kick him. 

“Where’s Hawkass?” she asked, looking up at him. “Cause I gotta tell you, the look on everyone’s face in the compound when it got out they were broken out was truly hilarious. I even took a pic of Hill for him when she found out it was you.” 

“Gimme!” the aforementioned sniper demanded, coming out of the building and holding out a grabby hand. She obligingly handed her phone over to him. 

“I am curious how you managed to get through my security,” T’Challa said, clearly angling for an answer. Steve frowned, wondering that himself. 

Darcy shrugged. “Heimdall.” 

“Which would be…what?”

“Who, not what,” she told the king. “Thor’s buddy. Asgardian God person. He rainbow-bridged me here when I asked.” 

“One of these days you’re gonna tell us why Heimdall is willing to transport you wherever you ask,” Steve told her and she smirked back at him, eyes twinkling. 

“I’ll never tell,” she sing-songed and Steve sighed again, though his lips were twitching. Darcy, despite everything she’d gone through, was still a shining beacon of happiness. He was grateful for that, even if she drove him crazy with it some days. 

Darcy’s expression suddenly turned serious, looking past him, and he glanced back to see Wanda approaching with Sam and Scott. Darcy brushed past him, going straight for the younger girl. As the men and T’Challa’s guard all watched, the intern-turned-assistant fussed over the witch, completely ignoring everyone else. 

“I am fine,” Wanda finally said, running a hand soothingly over Darcy’s wrist. Darcy made a disbelieving sound in her throat and Wanda corrected herself. “I am healing.” 

Darcy stared at the other woman a moment before she turned to Sam and began the same perusal, though it was a lot less fussy. Also, she was muttering darkly about Ross and asshats and something about ribcages and hats he wasn’t sure he wanted to understand. Sam just let her at it, a grin on his face as he looked down at her fondly. 

“Darcy adopted Wanda as a little sister the moment they met,” Clint said lowly and Steve glanced over to see him speaking to the king. T’Challa nodded, lips twitching as he continued watching the woman. When Steve turned back, he let out an involuntary snort of laughter. Darcy had finished with Sam and had gone straight onto Scott, who had never met her. Scott’s expression…he made a mental note to draw it later, if only because Darcy would appreciate the humor. 

When she was done, she turned back to Steve, Clint, and T’Challa, hands going to her hips. She gave all three of them a perusal, lingering on a few of the bruises he and Clint both had. Even the king got the examination and Steve made another mental note to warn the other man about the brunette’s tendency to adopt every superhero she met. Speaking off…

“How’s Tony?” he asked before he thought better of it in the current company. 

Darcy immediately scowled. “Finally grieving,” she answered. “Also, feeling really really stupid though he won’t admit it.” 

Steve nodded, taking that to mean the other man was okay, if probably still pissed off. 

“Vision is fine, if shook up,” she told Wanda. “He’s still reeling from what happened with Rhodey.” 

“And what about Rhodey?” Sam asked, frowning. 

“Walking again, though with Stark-tech help,” she answered. “He’s not up to War Machine status yet but Tony said he’s working on it.” 

“Natasha?” Clint asked. 

“Underground, though I got a card from a great aunt Myrtle that hasn’t spoken to my side of the family since the reunion when I was six,” she said and Clint nodded, relaxing. She paused. “Also, Tony only found out about this so I don’t think you guys know but…Coulson’s alive.” 

“…what?” 

“Yeah, he’s director of New Shield now,” she said, looking at Clint and ignoring Steve’s staring. “I’m pretty sure that’s where Nat is, cause the card mentioned how my Uncle Phillip has promised me 30 new songs for the iPod he was going to send to me before my vacation in Wakanda.” 

“That’s how you knew where they were,” T’Challa said then, still looking amused. 

“Yup, though Heimdall confirmed it for me before he beamed me down,” she shrugged. “I figured if Heimdall didn’t get me here, I could actually do the vacation thing. It’s not like it’d be unusual for me.” 

“Coulson’s alive?” Steve asked, a bit stuck on that. 

“Apparently,” she agreed. “He’s kinda pissed at Tony right now and wow, was that a huge argument, but he’s alive. He’s got a team he’s been working with since shortly after he healed up from Loki.”

“How did he survive?” Clint demanded. “I saw the video footage of his death—he shouldn’t be alive! He was stabbed through the heart!”

Out of the corner of his eye, Steve saw T’Challa’s eyebrows go high on his forehead in surprise. Darcy sighed, rubbing at her nose. 

“Tony said the same thing,” she told the archer. “Coulson refused to explain but did say that he really did die—it just didn’t stick.”

Clint sputtered but didn’t demand anything more—more than likely he’d seen the same thing Steve had, that Darcy really didn’t know anything more than that. 

“So, just out of curiosity, where’s the silver-armed wonder?” Darcy asked in an obvious change of subject. She looked at Steve. “I’ve been looking forward to meeting the man you called ‘me, without boobs.’”

“He…” Steve’s throat closed up as the last image he had of Bucky flashed in his mind. He HATED the idea of Bucky being back on ice, even though he understood why his best friend had insisted on it. At least this time it was his own decision and not pushed on him.

“Until we can clear his head, he chose to go back on ice,” Clint seemed to take pity on him and explained to Darcy what had happened. Darcy nodded to what she was hearing but she didn’t break eye contact with Steve. 

“Alright,” she said slowly and he knew that simple word held far more meaning than it might appear. She gave him a smile and finally broke eye contact to look at the King. 

“With your permission, your majesty, I’d like to go talk with Steve in private,” she said inthe most respectful tone he had ever heard her use. The king must have seen something in her gaze because he finally nodded and gave her an approving look. Smiling back, she turned to Steve and held out her hand in silent invitation. He hesitated only a moment before he grabbed it. She squeezed and he squeezed back before leading her out of entrance of the compound and towards the room he’d been given by the king for the duration of his stay here. 

**_”I’m here and I’m listening  
And its just you and me and these four walls  
And we are only human after all”_ **

“Nice room,” she told him when they got inside. It was modest, which he appreciated, looking more like a hotel room than personal quarters. He had some clothes, generously provided by the king, that were hidden away in the dresser but otherwise…nothing here belonged to him. It wasn’t home. 

No place would be home again until Bucky got out of the ice. 

“The king’s been very generous,” he said, not really even thinking about what he said. She nodded, pushed him to sit down on the couch in the corner, and curled up beside him. She didn’t face him; instead, one foot was tucked under her body as she leaned into his side and laid her head against his shoulder. She had yet to let go of his hand and he looked down at them, still clasped, as she waited. 

“The Soldier killed Howard and Maria,” he whispered and it was the first time he’d actually said the words aloud, the first time he’d let himself really accept that it had happened, that his best friend had had a part in their death. Darcy sucked in a startled breath but didn’t otherwise react. “I knew, before…I didn’t tell Tony. And then Zemo did it for me…” 

The whole story poured out, it was like someone had turned on a faucet in his head and he couldn’t shut it off no matter how much he wanted to. Everything that had happened, from the moment Sharon had told him they’d found Bucky in Romania, to finding him, Zemo activating the soldier with code-words. He told her about how Sharon had risked everything to help him, how she’d brought him his and Sam’s gear. He told her about calling Clint and how much he hadn’t wanted to do it but he’d been worried about Wanda, who was always so much harder on herself than she needed to be. He told her about the fight, about running for the quinjet and knowing, even as he’d done so, that the others were going to be caught and imprisoned. 

He told her how part of him hadn’t cared because it meant he was one step closer to clearing Bucky’s name and getting his best friend back.

“I put Bucky above them, above all of them,” he whispered. “I put him above everything…and it still didn’t make a difference. He’s…he’s gone and they’re all fugitives and Tony hates me.” 

“Steven Grant Rogers, you look at me right now,” Darcy said quietly and firmly and for the first time he did, finding tears streaming down her cheeks as she stared at him. Her expression was resolute as she looked him in the eye. “Bucky is not dead. He’s asleep and yeah it sucks but he’s not dead and every single person down there understood exactly what they were doing, what they were sacrificing to help you get Bucky back. That was their decision and don’t you dare malign that sacrifice by blaming yourself. It does them a disservice and it does BUCKY a disservice. And Tony’s not happy, you’re right, but he’s grieving and that clouds a persons judgment.” She paused a moment and then added more softly, gently, “Everyone wants their best friend to be safe, Steve. Even Tony understands that.”

To the end of his days he’ll never know why those simple words were what finally broke him. Maybe it was the gentleness, the soft expression on her face, the ache in her tone, but it was enough. 

For the first time since he’d found out Bucky was joining the army and leaving, back before Erskine and the serum and 70 years on ice, Steve Rogers allowed himself to cry. 

And Darcy, bless her, just held him and let him. 

**_”Rest your eyes now take my hand  
even heroes fall down now and then  
You can let it go  
You don’t have be Superman”_ **

**Author's Note:**

> Song is "Superman" by Rachel Platten.


End file.
